#Bible scholarship

[ktempestbradford]

I saw this and was only mad for .002 seconds because I thought of a great way to undermine this: Teach the Bible using actual Bible scholarship. I bet some teachers in Oklahoma could get away with using some of the following videos for instruction:

Story Time with Dr. Jennifer Bird or any of her other excellent videos.

CentrePlace, a church in Toronto, has a super informative History, Theology, and Philosophy lecture series that comes from a scholarly standpoint. Since they're a church, it might be easier to sneak these in. The list at the link above might seem a bit daunting. To get a flavor for what they've been discussing recently, check this playlist on their YT channel.

Former monk and current professor of Biblical studies John Dominic Crossan has a lecture series called "The Challenge of Jesus" that comes from a perspective of faith AND scholarship, which could again help it fly under the radar. Technically, you're supposed to buy it from an outfit called Faith and Reason, but if you want to check it out first, there's a playlist on YT.

PBS Frontline did a quite good documentary called "From Jesus to Christ" that includes scholars and theologians talking about how we get from the historical Jesus to the Christ of faith. Part 1 | Part 2

I could go on because I have been down the rabbit hole of Bible scholarship for the past year and I have TONS of recs. I feel like if kids in Oklahoma have to learn about the Bible, let them learn the truth about the Bible.

[poor-boy-orpheus]

Who was gonna tell me about the distinctions between John the Apostle, John the Evangelist, John the Presbyter, and John of Patmos???? Y'all let me go 27 years without this information??

[nochd]

It is widely agreed among biblical scholars that the Book of Revelation is a polemic against the Roman Empire using language and imagery borrowed from the Hebrew prophets, and that the name of the Beast, represented by the number 666, is "Nero Caesar".

Nero became emperor as a result of political machinations at the expense of the legitimate heir (Britannicus). He neglected his administrative duties, built himself lavish palaces, and his personal life was basically one long sex scandal. He held huge public appearances where the audience were coerced into applauding for him. He persecuted religious minorities -- including Christians, hence his depiction as the Beast in Revelation -- and made them scapegoats for the Great Fire of Rome.

Take that as you will.

[eli-kittim]

Eli Kittim Theology Group on MeWe

[lenbryant]

Or if it's read by Orange Julius Caesar: "One Timothy."

[sashayed]

time for me to review The Whole Bible. ready? ok. to be honest my favorite part of the gospels is Mark 8.22-26, when Jesus spits in some nice blind man's eyeballs and accidentally gives him cosmic consciousness. guy's just like "may i have a teaspoon of visual response to stimulus" and jesus is like "oh sure" and gives him God Vision. fuckin...ayahuasca sight that perceives the interconnectedness of all life. "oh is that not normal? does everyone not have that? nuts. ok try these eyes. are those more regular? great. maybe lie down by yourself for a while and please don't mention this to anyone"

[wolfxplush]

“Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.It will produce thorns and thistles for you,a nd you will eat the plants of the field.By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground,since from it you were taken.”

“For dust you are and to dust you will return.”

Post inspired by @employee41512 I need to ramble about how max and Gary are Lucifer and Eve.

“Does the fruit you crave taste as bitter and rotten as the actions you have taken upon my word?”

[spiritualdirections]

St. Jerome, the model interpreter of Scripture

From  Scripturae Sacrae Affectus,Pope Francis' Apostolic Letter on St. Jerome:

‘Biblical passages are not always immediately accessible. As Isaiah said (29:11), even for those who know how to “read” – that is, those who have had a sufficient intellectual training – the sacred book appears “sealed”, hermetically closed to interpretation. A witness is needed to intervene and provide the key to its liberating message, which is Christ the Lord. He alone is able to break the seal and open the book (cf. Rev 5:1-10) and in this way unveil its wondrous outpouring of grace (Lk 4:17-21). Many, even among practising Christians, say openly that they are not able to read it (cf. Is 29:12), not because of illiteracy, but because they are unprepared for the biblical language, its modes of expression and its ancient cultural traditions. As a result the biblical text becomes indecipherable, as if it were written in an unknown alphabet and an esoteric tongue.

‘This shows the need for the mediation of an interpreter, who can exercise a “diaconal” function on behalf of the person who cannot understand the meaning of the prophetic message. Here we think of the deacon Philip, sent by the Lord to approach the chariot of the eunuch who was reading a passage from Isaiah (53:7-8), without being able to unlock its meaning. “Do you understand what you are reading?” asked Philip, and the eunuch replied: “How can I, unless someone guides me?” (Acts 8:30-31).[32]

‘Jerome can serve as our guide because, like Philip (cf. Acts 8:35), he leads every reader to the mystery of Jesus, while responsibly and systematically providing the exegetical and cultural information needed for a correct and fruitful reading of the Scriptures.[33] In an integrated and skilful way he employed all the methodological resources available in his day – competence in the languages in which the word of God was handed down, careful analysis and examination of manuscripts, detailed archeological research, as well as knowledge of the history of interpretation – in order to point to a correct understanding of the inspired Scriptures.

‘This outstanding aspect of the activity of Saint Jerome is also of great importance for the Church in our own time. If, as Dei Verbum teaches, the Bible constitutes as it were “the soul of sacred theology”[34] and the spiritual support of the Christian life,[35] the interpretation of the Bible must necessarily be accompanied by specific skills."

[queer-as-used-by-tolkien]

Alright, I'll start because I've been honestly looking: I believe the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible and the Textus Receptus documents of the Greek NT, both used in the King James Bible, are the true and accurate words of God, for fair and sensible reasons.

I have not heard one good argument in favor of the Dead Sea Scrolls (recently-discovered extant manuscripts in Greek and Hebrew, used as the textual basis for all modern translations) that doesn't rely on secular 'if its dated older, its better' methodology. (A believer in the Word would hopefully know that God promised us His Word, to be USED, not hidden away in a cave, and we can't have had the wrong Bible for the last two thousand years.) I would also accept an argument that explained why older IS better, from a Christian worldview.

(This goes for the Sinaiticanus and Vaticanus texts, which gain most of their validity from the older Dead Sea Scrolls in the secular scientific practice of textual criticism.)

I have heard no good arguments for why we should trust the Nestle-Aland New Testament, compiled in the 1920s by unbelievers and with over twenty-five editions (meaning the """Word of God""" has been revised every four years on average in its mere hundred-year lifespan).

I have seen not one single proponent of any other single translation. It's just 'all translations are the word of God uwu' no its not. It's a translation. If you want the Word you need to learn Greek at least, if not Hebrew and also, while you're at it, Aramaic.

(I am not saying you should learn Greek and Hebrew, though. The most you need is to learn modern English. (YES, the KJV is modern English. It was translated within a few years of Shakespeare's works, and together the two make up the foundation of modern English. No, it's not a fifth-grade reading level like CNN is, and no it doesn't use pop-culture terminology, but it is NOT Old English. OLD English is incomprehensible to modern ears.) But I won't go further in this post as to why I believe in the KJB.)

I would LOVE to hear good answers to these. I feel as if I've only heard one side.

If you argue that 'there are no differences/they don't matter' know that I will be educating you (which I am willing to do) not the other way around (which I am also willing to do).

But don't bother to reblog if you are going to say 'but it's too hard to read!!!!1!!1!' If you want the Word you'll have to work for it, whether you learn Greek or put up with longer sentences (in actual English) than you're used to.

"You cannot be sure that you are right unless you understand the arguments against your views better than your opponents do."

Milton Friedman (1912-2006) American economist.

[queenlucythevaliant]

Why did God harden the Pharaoh’s? I’m in a Bible as Lit class and someone brought up “wouldn’t that be against free will,” and why did God let the Israelites stay it in slavery for so long. Why is God different in the Old Testament to the New Testament? I hope this doesn’t bother you, with all these questions

Okay, so there are several different questions here and I'm going to try to address them all. I'm sure I'll miss something somewhere, so other more knowledgeable friends feel free to add on. Follow-ups are also very much welcome.

First off, Bible as literature class! Yikes. I took a Bible as lit class for my English minor years ago and my experience was pretty much wall-to-wall frustration. It was mostly an exercise in coming up with the most transgressive reads on Scripture possible and that really upset me.

I hope that your experience is better than mine. However, assuming that the class is at a secular university, I'd still encourage you to be intentional about talking the things you cover in class over with knowledgeable Christians in your life. I certainly benefitted a lot from doing so, both in the sense that I got to vent a whole bunch and in that I got help contextualizing the secular perspectives within Christian scholarship.

That out of the way: The God of the Bible is the same in both the Old and New Testaments.

I do understand where you’re coming from. It’s not uncommon for people to find God kind of inscrutable in the OT when they're more used to reading the NT. I actually think that's a failure on the part of the contemporary church in the West; large swaths of the OT tend to be understudied among lay-Christians.

Systematic theology can help a lot here. I'm just going to hit a few really broad highlights, but I really can't recommend Wayne Grudem highly enough if you're interested in more in-depth reading. Lots of people start with Bible Doctrine, but my family happened to have a copy of his enormous Systematic Theology tome in the basement when I was in high school and I got a lot out of just poking through that a little at a time too. A few quick bullets though:

Across all the Biblical texts, God is love. He glories in kindness to his people, whether it's in the covenant with Abraham, the Exodus, the faithful ministry of the prophets, Christ's ministry/death/resurrection, or the promised coming of his kingdom.

God is holy; he gives the Law to the Israelites so that they can approach his holiness without fearing for their lives and he sent Jesus so that we can do the same. Both Isaiah and Peter react with fear and awe in the face of God's holiness.

God is just. By virtue of his holiness, he cannot allow sin to go unpunished. As modern westerners, we often chafe against this but has any of us experienced justice that was actually pure? Justice is a form of faithfulness, and the same God who sent his people into exile poured out his wrath on his own son in our place. He has promised that one day, every evil will face his perfect justice.

God is faithful. He keeps his Covenant with Abraham even unto the cross. In the OT he is faithful husband to an adulterous people. In the NT he tells us that when we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.

Lots of other characteristics but this answer is going to be long enough as it is. The only way to get a real sense for the continuity within the Bible is to read the whole Bible with an eye towards the continuity.

The reason that God is more approachable in the NT than the Old is that he became human. In the Incarnation, all of that holiness and justice and faithfulness and love that was God came to earth in our perfect likeness so that he could live beside us and die for us. God is certainly easier to approach in light of Christ's work, but he is utterly the same as he ever was. Read the Transfiguration and tell me that isn’t the God of Mount Sinai. Read John 1 and tell me it doesn’t remind you of the end of Job. Read the Gospels, Hebrews, and Revelation and play spot-the-OT-parallel. It's beautiful.

Why did God leave his people in slavery for so long? You could ask the same question about the Babylonian captivity and even about why Jesus waits to return and finally defeat Death. Why does he wait? Why let his people suffer?

Well. God is sovereign and he only permits evil to the extent that it ultimately accomplishes the very opposite of what it intends. Because the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, the Exodus was able to occur. The Exodus glorified God in extraordinary fashion, both among his own people and to the peoples of the ancient world. It was also a necessary type and precursor to Jesus's work on the cross. I don't think it's an overstatement to say that redemptive history rests on God's work in the Exodus, which is itself contingent on a period of slavery in Egypt.

“How long, O Lord” and “Come Lord Jesus” are the same sentiment in different words. We are still in exile, even now. We are chronologically exiled from the place where we belong, the New Jerusalem, and we mourn because we live in a fallen world in which sin and death can still hurt us. We can ask, just as the Prophets once asked, why God waits to vanquish the Enemy, extract suffering from the world, and restore our years that the locusts have eaten. And in each case (the slaves in Egypt, the Babylonian captivity, and the period of waiting for Jesus to return), the answer is that God does not fix it yet because He is doing something bigger!

Regarding Pharaoh's heart: this is basically a question of human nature. The easiest way that I can articulate it off the top of my head is using Augustine's fourfold state of man:

Prior to the fall, man was able either to sin or not to sin (posse peccare, posse non peccare)

The natural state of man after the fall is one in which he is unable not to sin (non posse non peccare). This was Pharaoh's state.

Following the work of Christ, regenerate man is able not to sin (posse non peccare)

In eternity, glorified man will be unable to sin (non posse peccare)

When we talk about man's will, we must acknowledge that our wills are subject to our nature. In other words, Pharaoh was a natural, fallen man. His nature was inherently sinful and his heart inherently hard.

What we've got here is sort of a "Jacob I have loved but Esau I have hated" situation. Pharaoh, in his natural state, had a hard heart and a natural enmity with God. God did not intervene to give him a heart of flesh. My people I have loved, but Pharaoh I have hated.

Not a perfect parallel, but I think it serves its purpose. The point is that God's sovereignty isn't in conflict with man's will, since our wills are a function of our natures. Man behaves however his nature inclines him to behave at any given time. We call this free will; however, God is entirely sovereign over all of it.

This is definitely a long, messy answer, but like I said, feel free to continue the conversation. I've got some biochem to work on, but I'm always happy to talk theology :)

[cr0w-culture]

shoutout to all the people on ebay selling copies of the satanic bible + other occult books in sets for $66.6 i adore all of you

[maps-and-elvis-and-zelda-n-shit]

New gospel of Matthew just dropped before winds of winter

[mannabibleinstitute]

Accredited Biblical Counseling Degree Online - Manna Bible Institute

Get your accredited biblical counseling degree online through Manna Bible Institute. Learn from experienced professionals in a flexible, faith-based environment. Perfect for those seeking a rewarding career in Christian counseling.

[thinkingonscripture]

The Spiritual Gift of Teaching

The New Testament references the gift of teaching in several passages (Rom 12:6-8; 1 Cor 12:28; Eph 4:11). This gift involves the ability to clearly explain and communicate biblical truths so that others can understand and apply them. A teacher, in the biblical sense, is responsible for instructing others in the doctrines of the faith, helping believers grow in their knowledge of God and in their…

[joebustillos]

Meditations On: Fact-checking the Bible | David Ellis Dickerson TED Talk

I’ve had more than a few Christian FB friends post messages of joy at the passing of laws requiring posting the 10 Commandments in Public School classrooms and/or teaching “the Bible” as part of the curriculum, as if this is the first step in fixing all of society’s ills:  I don’t think that they “appreciate” the can of WTF that they have exposed themselves to and how poorly this is likely to…

[argentumcor]

Just got the Word on Fire The Promised Land part of the WoF Bible and I realized I have all the volumes up backwards on my shelf. Once again, I do not girlboss, I girlfunction.

Also that I am going to need an entire shelf just to hold them once they're all complete- I have five, there are three more forthcoming.

It really is a wonderful Bible.